


Four Birthdays

by VampireBadger



Series: Forewarned is Forearmed [2]
Category: Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: Birthdays, Found Family, Gen, akira in inaba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24746113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireBadger/pseuds/VampireBadger
Summary: When Akira is eleven, he comes to Inaba, finds a family, and makes a home. When he is sixteen, he is arrested and taken away from Tokyo.In the years between, he grows up.Four birthdays, four presents from the people he cares about.
Series: Forewarned is Forearmed [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767610
Comments: 30
Kudos: 415
Collections: Marigolds Discord Recs





	Four Birthdays

**Author's Note:**

> I have never tried to write one character aging four years in the space of less than 6000 words. Harder than expected!

_June 5, 2012_

_The gift of a good book_

_-//-_

On Akira's thirteenth birthday--a Tuesday, this year--starts out on a less than great note when Akira sleeps in way past when he needs to be up for school. finally waking up only because Nanako comes and shouts through the door that he's going to be late. 

He dresses in five minutes flat and runs downstairs, dragging his backpack behind him.

"You're late," Dojima announces from the kitchen table.

"I know!" Akira says, already running for the door. "I know, I know, I know!"

"Lunch," Dojima reminds him, and Akira dashes back to grab the food he'd packed last night.

"Thanks!" he says, and _almost_ makes it to the door before--

"Homework," Dojima reminds him.

Akira groans, and this time has to run all the way back upstairs to grab his math homework. If he didn't do this at least once a week, he'd wonder how Dojima had known. 

He's on the way back downstairs when Dojima calls him back for a third time.  
  


"Hey," he says, and his voice is just that little bit _too_ casual. Even with time ticking away until the start of the school day, it makes Akira pause and look at him. 

"Yea?" he says.

"Catch," Dojima says, and pulls out a small package from under a pile of mail and paperwork. Akira juggles his schoolbag to one shoulder just in time to catch it, then looks back at Dojima in surprise.

"What's this?" he asks.

"It came in the mail yesterday," Dojima says. "I think it's for your birthday, so I held onto it."

The return address on the shipping label is familiar--Akira recognizes the Narukami address in Tokyo, and brightens. "It's from Yu," he says.

"I saw," Dojima agrees. "Now go on, you can open it at school." He makes a flat shooing motion with his hand, waving Akira out the door. "Nanako's already out there waiting for you to walk her to school."

Akira makes a face, impatient to see what Yu had gotten him for his birthday, but slips the package into his bag and heads for the door. As he's heading out, Dojima calls after him one more time.

"And come home right after school today, if you can," he says. "I'm bringing dinner home, and I think Nanako has something for you too."

Akira nods, feeling a surprised smile spread across his face. He _shouldn't_ be surprised by now. He should have gotten used to the fact that he fits here, that there are people that want him around, want to do things like celebrate his birthday with him.

It's just that sometimes it still feels too good to be true. Last year he hadn't even mentioned his birthday--he'd been too worried that Dojima would ask if his parents were planning to call or send anything. This year is different. No more secrets.

He walks with Nanako until he has to turn off the road to go up the hill to the middle school, while she goes on to the elementary school. Akira stands at the corner for a minute and waves until she's out of sight, then stops immediately to open the package from Yu. So maybe he's already going to be late to school, but he's impatient and he _really_ wants to see what Yu had sent him.

Inside the package is a small something in wrapping paper, and inside _that_ is--

A book. Akira flips it over to read the title, but instead finds a note in Yu's handwriting taped to the front cover.

_Happy birthday, Akira._

_I wasn't sure what to get you at first, but then a friend at school told me about this, and it made me think of you. Maybe you'll see why?_

_\- Yu_

Definitely intrigued now, Akira peels the tape and the note away from the book's cover, and reads the title.

_Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar_

_By Maurice Leblanc_

And somewhere in the back of his mind, dormant after weeks away from the TV World, Arsene stirs to wakefulness.

-//-

He starts the book on his lunch break and, apart from a five minute break where he tries to explain-without-explaining to Daiki what he's reading, doesn't stop until it's time to clean up for the afternoon classes. Throughout the rest of the day, Akira keeps pulling it out to peek at another page or two. When school finally lets out, he reads while he walks home.

It's hard to put into words exactly why the book has enthralled him so completely. It's an old book, originally written in French and translated eventually into Japanese, full of references to nineteenth century France that go right over Akira's head. It's not at all like the books he'd usually choose to read.

But there's something about the character of Arsene Lupin that strikes a chord deep inside him. The character of the charming thief somehow feels simultaneously like looking at a superhero and looking in a mirror. And Akira's not stupid. He can put the pieces together, figure out that his gut instinct reaction to this story is somehow connected to the Persona he'd awakened just over a year ago. But that doesn't make it any less of exactly what he needs.

Nanako's home when Akira ambles his way back there, and they sit in front of the TV while the news and the weather play. Nanako does her homework while Akira ignores his to keep reading.

Dojima comes home a while later, and that's just about the only thing Akira would have put his book down for right at that moment. Dojima is getting better at not working long hours, but dinners together still aren't an everyday thing. And since this one is for his birthday, the food is all his favorites, and Nanako even insists on him choosing what he wants to eat first. It's all takeout, of course, because none of them can cook, but that's so normal in this house that Akira doesn't even notice.

They talk, they eat, and just when Dojima and Nanako are starting to clear up (Dojima waves him off when Akira tries to help), the phone rings. 

"It's Yu!" Nanako reports as she carries the used dishes to the kitchen sink. 

"He's probably calling for Akira's birthday," Dojima says.

"I'll get it, then," Akira says, and hurries to pick up the phone. "Hi, Yu," he says.

"Akira," Yu says. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," Akira says. "I got your present this morning, it's really great, thank you."

Yu laughs a little self consciously. "Yea," he says. "I wasn't sure if you'd want an old French book for your birthday, but with your Persona..."

He trails off, and Akira rushes in enthusiastically to fill the silence. "No, it's really good!" he insists. "I mean, it's definitely kind of old, but I just--" If anyone would understand, he knows it would absolutely be Yu. He understands Persona, and what it's like to have an endless stream of them rattling around in his head, but still have one that is all his own and no one else's. 

So Akira talks to him about the thief in the book, who changes his name and his face and takes on as many masks as Akira does. Who slips into places that should be impossible to steal from, and likes to announce his crimes in the newspaper before he does them. Who pulls off theft after theft, with (and Akira says this with a smile, thinking about _bonds_ ), the help of contacts and friends.

Yu's laughing by the end of it. "I don't know how Persona are decided," he says. "But I think that whoever picked yours got the right one."

Arsense hums in the back of Akira's mind. "Yea," he agrees. "I think so too."

-//-

_June 5, 2013_

_The gift of a cat_

-//-

The day of Akira's fourteenth birthday starts with Nanako shaking him awake before dawn. 

"Akira!" she whispers, her voice urgent behind the low volume. "Akira, wake up!"

He opens one eye, just enough to squint at his cell phone where it's charging nearby. Then he closes it again. "No, Nanako," he mumbles. "It's 4:30 in the morning."

"It's 4:35," she whispers back. " _Please_?"

"It's my birthday," he complains, a feeble objection that he already knows won't work. She can be one of the most determined people he knows when she decides to be, and this seems like it's going to be one of those times.

Something nearby that isn't him and isn't Nanako makes a noise. Akira's eyes snap open, and his head swivels toward the source of the sound. It's a cat, squirming slightly in Nanako's arms as she looks at him with big, pleading eyes.

"Why do you have a cat?" Akira asks.

"I found him," Nanako says.

"Where?" Akira asks.

"He got in," Nanako says. "I think we left a window open. I heard him downstairs and Akira, you _have_ to help me hide him from Dad."

She gives him a pleading look, which the cat almost seems to mirror. Akira's brain, which is still trying to wake up and figure out what's going on here, clicks gradually into gear. "You want to keep the cat?" he asks.

"Yes!" Nanako says. "But you _know_ Dad doesn't want any pets."

Akira does know this, because Nanako has asked Dojima for a cat, a dog, a bird, and a rabbit over the past six months, and he's vetoed every single one. 

" _Please_ , Akira?" Nanako asks. 

He sits up, leaving a space next to him for Nanako to sit down. She does, and the cat settles more comfortably into her lap, purring as it curls up.

"I have questions first," Akira says. "First of all, those leftovers that have been going missing--" Little pieces of fish and chicken have been disappearing from the fridge for about a month now. "Have you been giving those to the strays?"

"Yes," Nanako admits.

"And the open window downstairs..."

"I left it open," she says. "But--"

"So," Akira says. "You asked your dad if you could have a pet, and he said no, so you went and made friends with a stray. Then you left a window open for it so it could come in and you'd have an excuse to keep it?"

"Um," Nanako says. "Yes."

"Sneaky," Akira says, with definite approval. Dojima has said (more than once) that he doesn't want an animal in the house because of the mess, and because he doesn't want to be the one that gets stuck taking care of it. Akira doesn't completely buy this as a good reason, since Nanako is eight but still the most responsible person he knows. There's basically no chance she won't take care of a pet. Maybe once the cat is actually in the house, it'll be harder for him to say no.

The approval cheers Nanako up, but only for a second. Then she droops again. "I left the window open every night this week," she says. "And then when it finally came in last night, I panicked a little bit. I thought maybe you would help?"

"Yea," Akira says. "Yea, of course I will."

-//-

They manage to keep the cat hidden for seventeen hours and twenty four minutes. Dojima leaves early for work that morning, which means they only need to keep the cat shut up in Nanako's room for another couple of hours. They both have school, of course, so there's some frantic conversation about whether they can leave the cat in the house by itself, before deciding that they don't have any other choice. What else are they going to do, stuff the cat into a bag and bring it with one of them to school? 

So the cat stays, and Akira learns absolutely nothing at school that day as he sits and stares out the window and thinks about all the ways a cat can get into trouble while no one's watching. But when the school day finally finishes and Akira hurries home (meeting up with an equally worried Nanako coming up the road from the elementary school on the way), the cat is just snoozing in a patch of sun. The house looks fine, and everything is still in one piece.

It continues to behave as they do their homework, warm up dinner, and watch the road outside for Dojima's car. When it finally comes, Nanako gathers the cat into her arms and dashes upstairs so fast that Akira barely has time to process it.

He manages to keep his face and his voice under control as he welcomes Dojima home, talks a little about his day, and asks Dojima about his. Nanako slips back downstairs at some point, joining seamlessly back into the conversation. The cat stays upstairs, and stays quiet. Akira's just starting to think about making an excuse to go upstairs and check on the cat, when he hears a soft _mew_ , and freezes.

The cat is standing at the top of the stairs, in clear sight of anyone that happens to look up and in that direction. Akira nudges Nanako and she looks up too--both of them stare frozen. _Move,_ Akira wants to scream at the cat, _move, get out of sight!_

The cat looks straight at him, then struts down the stairs, past Akira and Nanako, and into the kitchen where it rubs up against Dojima's leg and mews again.

Dojima looks down at the cat. Then turns his head and raises an eyebrow at the still frozen Akira and Nanako.

"I can explain," Akira says immediately, switching from trying to hide the cat to damage control.

"He's a _really_ good cat," Nanako says.

"He behaved himself all day when we were at school," Akira says.

"He's Akira's _birthday_ present," Nanako says, in what has to be a wild invention, since this is the first time she's mentioned it, and because they both know that she's the one that really wants the cat. Akira, because he loves Nanako like a sister and isn't going to leave her hanging here, nods determinedly.

The cat meows again, looking very small and particularly adorable.

Dojima leans down, very slowly, and gives the cat a pat on the head. "Alright," he says. "Since he's already here, you can keep it. But you two are the ones keeping track of it, understood? And I don't want it getting into any trouble."

But his voice is not nearly as stern as his words, and in a few minutes he's mentioning casually that they should take a trip up to Junes soon to get cat food and a litterbox, it's obvious that the cat's staying.

The cat turns out to be trouble, of course. It--or she, as it turns out--loves nothing more than to walk around the house, knocking small objects off tables and sitting on computer keyboards. She listens to absolutely no one, delights in climbing up on the roof, and is generally as much trouble as the human who had received her as a birthday present. Once, she even manages to sneak her way into Akira's school bag, and he doesn't notice until just before class starts and he spots her impish cat-smile smirking up at him from the shadows of his bag.

Akira calls her Shadow, because she's exactly as much trouble as one.

-//-

_June 5, 2014_

_The gift of a close friend_

_-//-_

Akira's fifteenth birthday is quiet.

He's in his last year of middle school now, going on his fourth year of living in a town that's become so familiar, it sometimes feels like he's been there his whole life.

Longer than he's ever lived anywhere else, anyway. Even before his parents passed, they'd travelled, constantly, and at least when Akira was younger, they'd taken him with them whenever it was time to pack up and leave. They'd live in one place for a year, somewhere else for two, but in the end there would always be somewhere new to move to. At the time he hadn't minded, because it had been the only life he'd ever known.

He doesn't know what he'd do now if someone told him he had to leave.

It's Sunday, and a day off school, so Akira spends the day with a couple friends from school, then heads home in the afternoon to what he expects to be a quiet evening with Dojima and Nanako.

Instead, he finds Yusuke sitting on the front steps, looking immensely pleased with himself.

Akira, in contrast, feels like falling over where he stands. "Yusuke?" he asks, hurrying forward. "What are--what are you _doing_ here?"

"It's your birthday," Yusuke says, as if this is enough to explain everything, or _anything_. "I wanted to come visit."

"But--" He shakes his head. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you, or anything." And to prove his point, he takes the last few steps toward Yusuke, and sits down at his side. "Did you take the train here?"

The grin Yusuke gives him is equal parts proud and sly. "No," he says. "I did not."

It doesn't take much effort after that to drag the rest of the story out of his friend. _Apparently,_ he's been making cautious trips into the TV through the one entrance Lavenza had made for them back when Akira and Nanako were kidnapped. _Apparently_ , he'd spent weeks carefully learning his way from the TV in Tokyo to the one in Junes, figuring out how to navigate around Shadows that might have fire attacks he had no defense against, until he had the route down exactly, and knew all the Shadows he was likely to run into on the way.

"So it's not really a trip I could make every day," he says. "Because it's _very_ tiring."

Akira nods. The only thing he ever feels like doing after fighting Shadows inside the TV is going home and getting to bed early.

"And," Yusuke adds. "I was only able to get away today because Sensei is out of the city on a retreat. But at least we can visit more often now?" 

Akira nods enthusiastically, and Yusuke goes on.

"And--I didn't exactly have any money to buy a present, so... I hope this is okay?"

"It's great," Akira says, and both of them launch immediately into conversation, the kind of conversation that happens when friends see each other again after a long time. They talk about school and home--Yusuke tells Akira what he's working on in his art (Akira will never be an expert, and he will _definitely_ never know as much as Yusuke, but he knows enough to kind of keep up), and Akira fills him in on what Inaba's been up to. 

Dojima comes home eventually. By this point, Akira and Yusuke have moved inside, Nanako has greeted Yusuke with a level of enthusiasm appropriate for the friend of a pseudo-older brother, and all three of them have migrated back out, this time to the garden. This is the fourth consecutive year of growing vegetables for Akira and Nanako, and they're getting pretty good at it. What had started as basically a school project for Nanako has turned into a seasonal project of ever growing proportions. Now that they're not focused on vegetables that would be the most useful for fighting Shadows, they can experiment with other things. Plants that are more complicated to grow, and need more specialized care.

They've even (cautiously) started to experiment with cooking the vegetables. Neither of them is great at it yet, but it's better than Dojima bringing premade meals home all the time.

Yusuke has no such gardening skills, explaining apologetically that it's harder to find space in Tokyo, his sensei would disapprove of a garden if he ever tried, and anyway he wouldn't trust himself not to forget about the plants for days at a time in favor of his painting.

Nanako pats him very seriously on the shoulder, says she understands, and sets him a simple weeding task.

So this is the scene in the yard when Dojima parks his car in the driveway and gets out, shaking his head--Yusuke with his hands covered in dirt, Akira and Nanako debating what to plant next, and Shadow sitting imperiously on her favorite spot Akira's shoulder.

She's not a particularly large cat, and he has given up fighting her. Its embarrassing to be out-stubborned by a cat.

"Hi, Dad!" Nanako calls. "Welcome home!"

Dojima nods at her, then raises his eyebrows pointedly at Akira. Clearly he's already noticing Yusuke.

"My sensei is away at a retreat for the week," Yusuke says. "He doesn't know I came here. I'll be going right back in the morning, if that's okay?"

Dojima looks like the part of him that wants to make sure Yusuke's guardian knows where he is, is warring with the part of him that wants to avoid more irate calls. "Alright then," he says. "Akira, make sure he has everything he needs for the night, okay?"

"Got it," Akira calls back.

Later that night, when Yusuke is settled and Nanako is in bed, Akira goes downstairs to thank Dojima for letting Yusuke stay, and then adds hesitantly, "You... really are okay with him being here, right? I'm sorry it was so unexpected, he figured out how to come through the TV and..." He trails off with a shrug and a very small smile.

"I don't mind him being here," Dojima says. "But--" He glances over Akira's shoulder up the stairs. "I am... _concerned_ about his guardian."

"His sensei?" Akira asks.

"Yes," Dojima says. "Akira, I know you're paying attention. I know Yusuke is your best friend. You have to have realized that the way Madarame treats him is not--" He cuts himself off, mouth turned down in a distinctly unhappy expression.

"I know," Akira says, because it's impossible to be friends with Yusuke and not notice that his sensei (and as Dojima had pointed out, his legal guardian) is stern and demanding and--and just not a nice person. "I don't think he's really doing anything wrong though, right? I mean, Yusuke will never say anything--" To anyone other than Akira, anyway. They've talked about this, over the years. "Because he still wants to _learn_ more, and because he's lived with his sensei as long as he remembers, and..."

Dojima nods as Akira trails off. "He's not being abusive," he says. "He's not doing anything illegal. He's just an unpleasant person who seems to think Yusuke needs a teacher but not a parent."

Akira makes a face. From everything Yusuke has told him over the years, it's hard to imagine Madarame as an actual _parent_. He's just too... 

He's just _not_.

"I know," Dojima says, with a faint smile by way of agreement. "But he is his legal guardian, and that means--it should mean--that he has a responsibility to support Yusuke emotionally and mentally, not just pysically. He doesn't seem like he does that."

"He doesn't really, I guess," he admits. "But what can we do about it?"

"Legally," Dojima says. "Nothing." He fixes Akira with a stern look. "But--make sure that he knows he's welcome here if he ever needs someplace safe to stay."

Akira nods, something in him feeling tight. He's not sure if it's worry for Yusuke, or gratitude for Dojima, so he just nods and says " _Thank you_ " and heads back upstairs.

Yusuke is his best friend. He's going to make sure he gets through things okay.

-//-

_June 4, 2015_

_The gift of not being arrested, this time_

-//-

It's half an hour before midnight on a Thursday evening, and there are twenty eight first year high school students sitting in the Inaba police station, waiting to be interviewed.

Well, Akira thinks to himself, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes tiredly. Maybe he should have expected that this would happen. Maybe twenty eight people is too many people to be able to move around quietly. But it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and--

He opens his eyes again, straightening up a little. And it _had_ been the right thing to do, even if it had ended up backfiring hugely.

There's not enough places for all of Class 1-3 to sit, so they're spread out wherever they can fit in the conference room where they've been told to wait. Some on the few chairs, most on the floor. Akira's in a corner near the door, a little apart from any of the clusters of whispering students. This whole thing had been his plan, and it had gone wrong. He... would not be able to blame them if they decided to be pissed at him for the rest of high school.

Daiki sits down next to him with a thump. "Hey," he says.

"Hey," Akira says. By this point, he has more or less accepted the fact that Daiki is just going to be _around_ for as long as they both live in Inaba. And honestly, it's been a long time since he's been just a bully--after the gladiator arena, and then Daiki seeing the fog filled Inaba for himself, and then just... four years of growing up, he's still kind of loud and sometimes blunt, but not at _all_ as much of a jerk.

"So what are we gonna tell the cops?" Daiki asks. He lowers his voice, as if they haven't _already_ been caught and brought to the police station. At this point, there's literally zero chance of them avoiding trouble.

"I'm going to tell them it was all my idea," Akira says. 

"But it wasn't," Daiki points out.

"It kinda was."

"It was your _plan_ ," Daiki says. "Not your _idea_."

"It--"

The argument--which has started to draw the attention of a few more of their classmates--is interrupted when the door to the conference room opens, and Dojima walks in. His face is at its most stern, and Akira winces. He is _really_ not looking forward to this part. Dojima puts up with a lot from him, he knows, but this might just be one step too far over the line.

He forces himself not to shrink away from that look.

"Alright," Dojima says. He sounds tired, which is a fair enough reaction to this entire situation. "Your parents are being called, and should start arriving to pick you up soon."

There are some worried whispers from several of his classmates, who are obviously as worried or _more_ worried about what their parents are going to say than the police reaction. Akira thinks vaguely that at least they're the same thing for him.

"I'll be interviewing a few of you tonight," Dojima continues. "And possibly the rest of you over the next few days, if we decide it's necessary based on what I hear tonight. Your school will be informed in the morning, and they may have additional consequences for you."

A pause, to let the group collectively stew over this, too.

Dojima's eyes sweep the group, no doubt wondering who to start with. Akira decides to just get things over with, and stands up. It's... hard, to meet Dojima's gaze in that moment, but Akira forces himself not to look away. "It was all my plan," he says, ignoring the whispers that break out behind him as he says this. He's glad they're too quiet to make out what they're saying--he doesn't think he wants to know. "You might as well start with talking to me."

"Alright, then," Dojima says, and waves him out of the room and down the hall.

They don't say anything until they reach what's obviously an interrogation room. Akira squirms hard as he takes a seat at the table, feeling very small and very much in trouble. 

"Care to explain?" Dojima asks, folding his arms. 

"There's this group of third years," Akira explains. "They've been bullying a some of my classmates since the beginning of the year, and it's just been getting worse and worse."

He fidgets. He had not liked bullying when he was the victim back in elementary school, and he doesn't like watching it happen now.

And it turns out, neither had most of his classmates. Neither had Daiki, who had actually decked one of the older students when he found out what was going on, which had led to an escalation of hostilities that eventually spread the circle of people being bullied from 'just a few people' to 'all of class 1-3.'

"Things got worse," Akira says, vastly oversimplifying the past two months. "They stole some stuff out of our classroom earlier this week, some personal stuff and some expensive stuff." He shrugs, a little self consciously. "Cell phones and stuff. Anything they could grab out of bags and get away with. We tried to get them back during the school day--"

"Did you go to a teacher?" Dojima interrupts.

"Well," Akira admits. "No. They didn't believe us at first, we didn't think they would _now_."

"Did you come to me?" Dojima asks, a little sardonically, because the answer is very obviously no.

"We were going to fix it by ourselves," Akira says, not at all meeting his eyes.

"Which doesn't seem to have worked out very well for you," Dojima points out. "I guess you thought that you were going to go in at night and get these things back." 

Akira nods. It hadn't been his idea, but he's at least used to sneaking around Shadows in the TV World, and his classmates had just been planning to walk right up to the school and hope for the best. He'd at least come up with a plan, which he'd been proud of. It had _almost_ worked (right up to the point where someone had gotten careless, turned on some lights, and been spotted by someone up late in a house nearby), and it had been kind of amazing to know that his whole class--not just the people that had been bullied the worst, not just the people that had been stolen from--were in it all together. It's always nice, to be breaking the rules as part of a team.

Dojima sighs. "Akira," he says. "You realize how much trouble you, specifically, could be in from being caught doing something like this. Even a minor brush with the law should be reported to your parents, and I don't think I need to remind you why that would be bad."

"I... wasn't thinking about it," Akira admits, in a very quiet voice. Sometimes, he forgets that he's not supposed to be here, and how tenuous his ability to stay in Inaba is, and how much trouble not just he himself, but also the people he cares about could be in if he's ever caught lying.

"You _have_ to think about it," Dojima says. "You _have_ to be careful, Akira."

"I'm sorry," Akira says. "I just--I wanted to help." And of course his first instinct, on trying to help, had been to do it like... well, like a trickster. It's the way he sees things, and a label he's grown into as he gets older. But sometimes... a _lot_ of times... it makes trouble for the police detective that's raising him.

Dojima sighs heavily. "There is no changing you, Akira," he says, and behind the serious expression, there's a hint of wry humor. A good sign, maybe? "And I trust that when you're making trouble, it's because you have good reasons for whatever your end goal is. But you need to understand that once in a while, you _can_ help people by following the rules. You _can_ come to me, or to other adults who can fix things without any late night breaking and entering." 

"I'll remember," Akira promises. "And... I should have known to come to you in the first place. Next time I will."

"We'll see," Dojima says, with a hint of well deserved skepticism. "But for now... I'm not going to file this officially. I'd be fielding calls for the rest of the school year from parents worried about their children being saddled with criminal records. But I do expect your school will have some kind of consequence for all of you."

Akira nods. That's only reasonable. And better than it could have been.

"And we'll be having a separate conversation about all this when we get home," Dojima goes on. Akira understands this to mean that while Dojima-the-police-officer is not going to arrest him, Dojima-the-surrogate-father-figure is more than likely going to ground him.

"I understand," he says. 

"And I will be having a conversation with these third years," Dojima adds, in a pointed tone that says _this is the appropriate way to deal with problems that you can't take care of on your own._

"Thanks," Akira says. "For helping to get the stuff back, and... you know. Not arresting anyone."

Dojima snorts, and looks up at something over Akira's head. "On your birthday?" he asks. "Not this year."

Akira twists around, and sees that it's after midnight, which makes it June fifth, which makes _him_ sixteen. He laughs, genuinely surprised, and Dojima shakes his head and raises his eyes heavenward as if asking for help with impossible teenage charges. 

"Alright," he says, waving Akira away. "Alright, alright. Head back to your class and wait--I'll need to stay here until everyone's parents arrive, and I don't want you walking home alone this late."

Akira nods again, and half bolts for the door, relieved that the conversation is over. He has his hand on the handle when Dojima calls his name, and he turns back.

"Just... please learn something from this," Dojima tells him. "You have to be _careful_ , and sometimes that means trusting that the people that are supposed to help you will actually help you. Okay?"

"Okay," Akira says. "I promise." And he hurries out the door. 

There are a few less people in the conference room when he gets back there--apparently some parents have shown up already--but roughly twenty expectant faces turn toward Akira, clearly waiting to hear how much trouble they're going to be in.

"Fine," Akira says. "He's not going to put anyone on permanent record, he's just going to let the school and our parents figure out what to do. And he's going to help us get our stuff back and deal with the third years."

A ragged cheer goes up from his classmates, and the dead silence in the room shatters into half a dozen simultaneous conversations starting up at once. Akira lets himself be pulled into them, feeling a weight lifting off his shoulders as he realizes this actually is going to be okay.

And as for his promise to Dojima to come to him next time he gets into trouble like this... he makes himself the promise that there won't _be_ a next time. This, he tells himself, will be the last time he gets in over his head, the last time he gets in trouble with the police. After all, he _does_ have good reasons to be careful. He _does_ have a lot to lose if he makes the wrong kind of trouble. The last thing he needs is to be arrested.

(And yet, less than a year later, there will be an angry politician, a woman crying for help, and a Trickster who will not be able to bring himself to walk away)

(And his seventeenth birthday will _not_ be spent in Inaba)

**Author's Note:**

> Update on series progress: I have... _almost_ finished planning out the sequel, meaning I have everything up to the casino plotted, and _no_ idea how to end things, which I guess is as good as we're going to get!
> 
> I'll probably post one more oneshot before ruining Akira's life and exiling him to Tokyo (I'm halfway through rewriting Dancing All Night and poor cranky _'I don't want to dance'_ Akira is too much fun not to finish with :p), but that'll probably be it. I might come back at a future point and write some more growing-up-in-Inaba stuff, but right now I'm just too excited to forge ahead.
> 
> One last note--I feel obligated to point out that last weekend (if you're reading this close to when I'm posting it) Persona 4 Golden was released on Steam. Which means that if you never owned a vita or played the original on PS2, now is your chance to play this wonderful game, and you definitely should.


End file.
